Tepid LI support for proposed flu shot bill

A proposal being revived in the State Senate that would require health care workers to get flu shots has just tepid support from Long Island lawmakers.

State Sen. Thomas Duane (D-Manhattan), who chairs the health committee, said is drafting legislation he hopes to introduce soon to make flu shots mandatory for medical facility workers, said his spokesman Mark Furnish.

Furnish said Sunday that details of the bill are not yet available, but that Duane's intent is to "cast as wide a net as possible" in determining who in the health care community would be covered under the law.

The planned legislation comes after health care workers and unions objected last year to a state Department of Health policy requiring flu shots for all medical facility personnel. The policy was eventually rescinded amid concerns of a vaccine shortage.

But the three Long Island senators who sit on the health committee expressed some level of reservation about the bill. Chris Schneider, a spokesman for State Sen. Charles Fuschillo (R-Merrick), said the bill will be carefully reviewed, but Fuschillo's support isn't likely. "Senator Fuschillo understands the intent behind this," Schneider said, "but he is uncomfortable with making it a mandate."

State Sen. Craig Johnson (D-Port Washington) said he's worried about how such a policy would work in the face of vaccine shortages, as well as cases in which a health professional can't be vaccinated due to a health condition.

"In short, it all has to do with the bill language," he said. "I'm sure the sponsor and I will be discussing these issues in the weeks to come."

State Sen. Kemp Hannon of Garden City, the top Republican on the committee, said that from a public health standpoint, the idea has "a considerable amount of merit." He said he would support efforts to persuade health workers to get shots by choice, but any mandate should only be instituted after considerable deliberation.

"We know that the elderly are the most susceptible to the flu," he said, "so should it be those working in nursing homes who are required to be vaccinated?"